Doug Van Pelt

Cornerstone.3

Here's some photos:





Children 18:3 getting up there...





Owl City





Spoken fans awaiting their energetic set





Matt Baird getting the crowd connected so he could speak a blessing to them. Very cool blessing, too.





Showbread setlist





A crappy photo of Austrian Death Machine (just to give you at least a muddy look at what went down. Look around the cornerstonefestival.com site for clear, actually good photos of ADM).

Cornerstone.2

Brief notes:

I have limited access to internet, so for the best, up-to-date (live, while it's happening) updates on the festival, follow me on twitter.com/dooglar or on my facebook.com/HM.Magazine page. I'll post the occasional photo, too. While you're at it, follow many tweeters at the cornerstonefestival.com page, which has a twitter update on the main page.

Other brief notes (coming briefly)...

Cornerstone.1

Somewhere in Oklahoma, near the place where 69 is going to meet up with Interstate 44, I was at a stop light and a lady motions to roll my window down.

"Do you know you're riding on your rim in the passenger side back of the trailer?"

While it might have been funny to be funny, I said "No" and "Thanks." We have double axles on this trailer, so blowing one tire to complete shreds doesn't send the trailer flipping. We immediately turned right into a strip mall parking lot that was deserted (it is Sunday). After using the jack from our vehicle to replace the tireless rim with our spare, we headed over to a Walmart, which my ingenius and resourceful wife found out about on her iPhone. After going less than a mile up the road I was able to get a new tire installed on the rim, which would be our new spare. Did I mention that we arrived with about 40 minutes to spare before Walmart closed its automotive section for the day? Did I also mention my lament that "gone are the days of the thirty dollar tire?" Big sigh.

Later, after we hit the turnpike that is Interstate 44 going East to Missouri, we were about 20 or 30 miles West of Joplin when I saw some bits of black rubber flying from our driver's side trailer wheel area. Sure enough, some courteous passenger told me (I can read lips when someone is motioning and telling me that my tire is shredded) that something was wrong with my tire. I pulled over to the narrow shoulder, which included a steep grassy slope to the right of it, just a few feet from cars obeying (and some not) the 65 or 70 mph speed limit. With the blowout on the leading wheel, any more travel would send the shreds into the trailing tire and possibly damage it, so something needed to be done very very soon. With it being on the driver's side and the steep slope providing no room on the grass, we stood out behind the trailer while our girls were inside the car.

I wanted to remove some of the tread to make it safer for the trailing wheel, but not all the traffic was changing lanes to give us space. I found myself shaking a little bit. Crazy how our bodies can get out of control. I had to tell myself to keep it together. We decided to drive slow with our hazards on until we could find a spot. A few miles later we found a driveway and a very non-descript barn/warehouse/storage building with a big concrete driveway. It was up and removed from the busy highway.

Our daughters delighted in standing on the driveway and pulling down an imaginary horn trigger to get passing truckers to blow their horns. They liked it when they did. I told them to stop after awhile, because I wanted to change the spare but not mis-communicate some sort of distress signal to passing vehicles. A minute later an Oklahoma State Trooper shows up. He was very nice and offered me his hydraulic jack to speed the changing of the tires up. He told my wife that he'd been avoiding this spot, because this is where they took most of the vehicles from that deadly pile-up two days prior, and they cut the bodies out of the mangled cars up on this driveway. He said he'd been avoiding this spot as long as he could, because of the bad memories. Apparently, two children from that wreck died today.

We drove to a gas station about five miles further up the road after changing the tires, hoping for no more blow-outs. I pumped more air into the tires, until they were all above the max pressure of 50 psi. Another 20 or so miles and we made it to the Bid Red Barn RV park, which has free wifi and I could write this.

Praise God for His protection. These mishaps could have been much worse. I hope for no more complications on the rest of this trip.

I took a photo with my cell phone camera and posted it on my twitter and facebook page, so you can see how shredded this thing was (the first one). All the rubber, pretty much, was gone.

White Collar Side Show on cover of HM

Yes, it's true. I'm announcing it here (after talking to my wife, God, Corey and the band (in that order). I will be writing a cover story on White Collar Side Show (the band little Jesse Thompson refers to as "The Gypsies"), based upon our two-hour (Lord help me transcribe that sucker) interview in Nashville last April.

I'm so excited. Here's the deal: I had several options for this cover, and one idea that popped its way into my head was the "wildcard" idea of putting a relatively unknown (but deserving of attention) artist on the cover. I mentioned it to our interns last night. It was one of the "bold" options I had. I told my wife I was kinding leaning towards this one. This band is a ministry. They've put all their money into their thing (instruments, gasoline, an RV) and they're out there doing it. They're travelling all over, putting on the craziest, "What the heck is this?" show (mixing part Vaudevillian visuals with Drum Street Corps percussion craziness and bringing a message that the xxxchurch and Promise Keepers would be proud of). I love 'em. Now I get a chance to express that love. I am stoked. I might even feel that "I was made for this" kind of fulfillment as I write about something/someone I love.

Well, it all came down to the intersection of FM 685 and FM 1825 (if you live around Austin, you should visit that intersection and start a WCSS shrine...NOW). I was praying (and I believe I heard from God). I asked Him, "Should I do this?" (I believe He knew what I was talking about...it's like the God I know uses telepathy or something. He can read minds. For real.) Anyway, I believe He told me, "Yes." I felt a squeeze in my stomach area. I might've even felt the muscular contractions involved in crying tears. I think I heard Him expound on this, maybe even saying something like, "Go with the freaks."

Then, just at that moment (exactly), turning left towards the North from 1825 onto 685 was a big white pickup truck with large 4 or 5 inch diameter multi-colored polka dots ALL OVER IT turns right in front of me as I'm stopped at the light in prayer.

Now, I tend to want to look at signs from a partially skeptic viewpoint. I like to mull over things. Anyway, it wasn't my deciding factor. I had that with His "Yes" word. This was just like a funny confirmation afterwards. This kinda fits in with how I think He rolls.

Now, if God did not speak to me. If that was just my imagination, okay. I'm guilty. Blame it on me. I'll take that. I'll be the fool.

So, here it is: on the cover of the Sep/Oct issue of HM Magazine -- White Collar Side Show. Now I've got lots of work to do.
(maybe I'll ask Corey or Kelly to transcribe the two-tape interview for me... Wouldn't that be a great thing to come back from Cornerstone and find: "Here is your interview, sir!" Not that they should call me sir.)

By the way, that cover, above? Not official or final layout. Just a preliminary "throw something together real quick" to make the announcement.